


A Tale of Eight Puppets

by Anonymous



Category: Puppet Master (Movies)
Genre: Basically a fluff fic, Family Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Humor, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-08
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-06 10:52:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17343971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: You find a trunk full of puppets at the pawn shop.





	A Tale of Eight Puppets

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Tale of Two Bitties](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8034553) by [Spectascopes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spectascopes/pseuds/Spectascopes). 



 

        The door to the little shop opened easily, the little bell above it alerting the employees that you had come in. Going to the Pawn Shop wasn't usually something you did, seeing as you had no need to budget yourself at all, but it was kind of nice to just look at all the items that were being given a second chance instead of being thrown away. Sometimes you managed to find a nice little trinket to set up in the living room or the foyer, but most of the time, these visits just consisted of you looking around idly until you eventually grew bored. Either way, it was just a fun little activity you liked to do every two or three weeks. Get out of the house a little, you know?

 

        There weren't many people inside the pawn shop this early in the morning, so you had lots of room to wander around. Of course, the first thing you looked at was clothes, but anything you liked wasn't in your size, so that was a total bust. Next up came the books at the back, most of which didn't interest you at all. The ones you _could_ read just didn't have a good story line, while the ones in other languages... Eh. Maybe next time.

 

        You were about to go to the front left corner where all the CD's and cassette tapes were, when something caught your eye and made you stop in your tracks. In the glass case the shop had just next to the registers was some sort of doll. Naturally, you were too old for dolls at this point, but what made this one stand out was the fact that it wasn't like any other doll you had seen at a pawn shop. This one was dressed completely in black, its white skin and hair making a stark contrast against its clothes, and a wide smile settled underneath cold, empty eye sockets. However, the most intriguing part by far had to be the knife and hook it had in place of hands. All those horror dolls that had been on the market always looked like they were trying too hard, and normal dolls were just too girly and mainstream, but _this_ one... It was something else. It wasn't trying to be overly scary, and it left much to be questioned about. Why did it look like that? Why didn't it have actual hands? Where were the eyes, or did it even _come_ with eyes? This thing had so much personality for such a simple design, and from the moment you set eyes on it, you knew. You _had_ to have it.

 

        "Oh, do you like him?" You looked over at the employee behind the register, a light smile settling on your face. Looks like she had seen you staring at the little guy.

 

        "Yeah, actually. I was wondering if I could hold him? You know, see if he's not messed up and all that."

 

        "Of course!" The employee wasted no time in unlocking the glass case and grabbing the doll, making sure to not poke herself with the blade of the knife. "Be careful, he's got a mean left hook!" You snickered at the terrible pun, taking the doll in your hands with caution. He was a decent sized doll, and you couldn't help but smile just a bit more as you turned him over in your grip. "He's an _incredibly_ old puppet, at least sixty years old, but as you can see, he's in _excellent_ condition. No one really knows where we got him from, but I'd be willing to give him to you for about twenty-eight dollars!" Giving the doll one last good look, you smiled up at the woman and nodded.

 

        "Sounds like a deal. I'll take him." The two of you went over to the register, and you stood the doll- puppet -on top of the counter while the employee circled around to the other side. When she started ringing up the single item on her computer, you looked down and rummaged through your pockets for your wallet. Not a second later, the pitter patter of small feet was heard, and both you and the employee looked up from what you were doing. To your utter surprise, the puppet was gone. However, a quick look to the left revealed that the doll was now standing atop the glass case, his head angled down to stare at a closed trunk inside. "...Uh..." You hesitated a moment before walking over and picking the puppet up again. Once you were back at the register, you set him down on the counter in front of the slightly uncomfortable employee and looked down to grab the cash out of your wallet, only to be interrupted by the pitter patter of feet again.

 

        _"Oh my god."_ The puppet was standing on the glass case again, only this time, his knife hand pointing straight down at the trunk while its eyes were staring right at you. The pawn shop employee looked significantly freaked out at this point, and although you were also a little spooked by this, you couldn't help the curiosity bubbling in your chest. You flicked your eyes down to the trunk for just a moment before looking back at the puppet and slowly going over to retrieve him, but this time, you simply held him as you stared at the trunk curiously.

 

        “Hey... What’s in this trunk?” The employee hesitated, her eyes staring at the doll in fear, but your expectant gaze snapped her out of it long enough to answer your question.

 

        “I, um- T-There’s just more puppets, but they’re _really_ nothing like that one...”

 

        “How many?” You switched your gaze back to the one in your hands. 

 

        “Uh, six.”

 

        “Huh.” You continued to stare at the puppet, and the puppet stared back. You hadn’t been counting on this puppet being alive at all, but it was a good thing the whole ‘living doll’ scenario never scared you. If anything, this only intrigued you more. Nobody lived with you at your house, and even if it was just a supposedly living puppet, it would be nice to have some company. Plus, this guy seemed like he was trying to tell you something. If there were more puppets in that trunk, then did that mean he wanted you to get them along with him? You had heard of dolls and figures being made to be together, so maybe it was the same for these puppets? It wasn’t unbelievable. Maybe these other puppets were his family. If that was the case, then it made sense for him to be so adamant about you taking this trunk.

 

        “...How much for all of them?” The woman physically flinched. 

 

        “Excuse me?!” You looked up at her, still holding the puppet in your hands.

 

        “I’d like to buy the rest of them. How much?” For a moment, the employee was completely at a loss, her mouth agape as she stared at you in disbelief. It was a few seconds before she managed to snap out of her stupor again.

 

        “I- F-Fifty five total-“

 

        “Done.”

 

* * *

 

        The drive home was nothing special, save for the trunk sitting in the backseat and the puppet secured by a seatbelt in the passenger side. When you finally pulled up to your house however, you had some trouble carrying both the trunk and the puppet inside, only just managing to haul the large case through the front door. With a big huff, you gave one pull and yanked the trunk over to the couch, leaving it standing next to the piece of furniture. Man, you really should work out. Things weren’t good if you were having that much trouble hauling this trunk inside, but you had more important things to worry about right now.

 

        After making sure the front door was locked, you heaved a big sigh and placed the puppet in your hand onto the coffee table, flopping onto the couch a second later. From there, you crossed your arms and stared at him, waiting for something to happen...

 

        Nothing.

 

        “Oh, so _now_ you’re playing dumb?” No response. You cocked a brow and waited a little longer, but the puppet wasn’t moving. “Look, I _know_ you can move, otherwise I wouldn’t have bought all these other puppets like you wanted. Now are you gonna say hello or what?” Still nothing. This earned an exasperated sigh from you, and you shook your head in disbelief. Honestly, just take a look at yourself, talking to a _puppet_ of all things. What had your life come to?

 

Giving one last look at the puppet, you decided to turn your attention to the trunk instead. It wasn’t difficult to open, and you discovered that the weight of it all really was just in the material of the trunk, seeing as the items inside were relatively light. However, once you caught sight of the other puppets inside, a smile broke out on your face once more.

 

        “‘Nothing like that one’- Bullshit, that lady didn’t know what she was talking about!” In actuality, although the other puppets didn’t look anything like the first one, they all had the same effect that it did. They each had their own little quirks, such as a tiny head with large hands or six arms and other things of the like. Oh man, you _definitely_ didn’t regret buying the rest of these things! You had your own little ragtag collection of puppets now, and you almost passed them up! With the excited smile still on your face, you looked back to the original puppet.

 

        “Hey, thanks, little guy! I almost walked off without these!” In the next moment, you were picking out the various puppets from the trunk and setting them up on the coffee table next to the original one. Soon, there were seven puppets in total standing on the small table. The original, a jester puppet, the large one with a tiny head, one with a drill on its head, the one with six arms, a mean looking one with bullets for teeth, and a female one with beautiful hair. You smiled at the setup, thinking of getting your phone out and taking a picture when you were interrupted by a growl. Oh. You were hungry.

 

        Finding food in the kitchen wasn’t really hard, and it didn’t take you very long to whip up a sandwich on the counter. You put away all of the ingredients you used, went back to the counter to retrieve the sandwich and turned to go back to the living, only to shriek and jump back in surprise. Standing at the edge of the kitchen tile was the original puppet, his empty eyes staring up at you underneath the brim of its hat. “ _Jesus_ , don’t scare me like that! I could’ve dropped my sandwich!” There was no response. “Ugh, this again?” With another sigh, you sauntered over to the puppet and knelt down, taking a bite of your sandwich as you stared at the puppet once more. He didn’t move as you chewed and swallowed, and this time, you questioned if this guy was messing with you. Brushing the crumbs off your hand, you lifted a finger and slooowly moved to poke him in the chest.

 

        The puppet opened his mouth and hissed, his knife hand swiping at your finger. With a small shout of surprise, you pulled your hand back, only to stand up as you realized what just happened. "Holy shit, you _are_ alive! I _knew_ it!" You set your plate down on the counter, the sandwich forgotten in light of this development. As soon as you knelt back down again, the puppet hissed once more and raised his knife hand threateningly, to which you held your hands up in surrender. “Woah, woah, okay! No more poking, I got it! Jeez.” The puppet lowered its weapon, but still seemed to stare at you suspiciously. You gazed at it in return, tilting your head this way and that as if it would allow you to find what was making the puppet move. As expected, there were no strings attached, but if that was the case, then maybe some sort of robotics were responsible for its movement? Then again, that wouldn't make any sense. That clerk had said this puppet was _really_ old, and you were sure that nobody had discovered a way to make a puppet so lifelike using such primitive robotic knowledge. There was no possible way this puppet could be moving on its own. Unless...

       

        “Are you a ghost or something? A poltergeist hiding in this puppet, come to infiltrate my home and wreck my shit until I eventually go mad from all the stress of having my safe space destroyed?” The puppet stared. After a moment, he tilted his head questioningly, as if trying to ask if you were doing okay. That look made you frown as you finally considered the strangeness of your words. “Mm. Was that too weird? Sorry,” you sighed, rising to your feet again. “A side effect of living alone, I guess. The more you isolate yourself, the more you have to try and makes things interesting. I guess I’ve become a little eccentric while in my own company. I mean, just look at me now.” The plate was picked up off the counter as you turned around to face your tiny guest, taking a bite of the sandwich before continuing. “I’m talking to a _puppet_. Granted, you’re alive and walking around, but I still can’t explain how or why. No one even knows where you _came_ from, you know?”

 

        The puppet tilted its head once more before darting back into the living room. You stood there for a moment, calmly eating your sandwich until the puppet’s small head poked back into the doorway, causing you to raise an eyebrow.

 

        “What? You want me to _follow_ you?” With a swift nod, the puppet ran back into the living room, so with a casual shrug, you took another bite of your sandwich and followed him. He led you back to the coffee table with all of the other puppets set up, and you allowed yourself to take a seat on the couch again as he began rummaging through the trunk for something. A couple seconds later, the puppet dragged a large, rolled up paper from the trunk over to you, giving you a pointed look that clearly said ‘unroll this’.

 

        “Alright, alright, hold your horses.” After setting down your sandwich and dusting the crumbs from your fingers, you reached for the paper and unraveled it, only to find that the paper was not just any paper, but was, in fact, a colorful advertisement poster. The words printing in large letters were very hard to miss.

 

        _Andre Toulon_

_PUPPET MASTER_

 

        “Huh.” You broke your eyes away from the poster and glanced down at the puppet next to you. “So, this Toulon guy is the one who made you?” A nod. “Is it safe to assume he made the _other_ puppets too?” Another nod. “Alright, cool.” You gave the poster another once over before an idea struck you. “...I think I might keep this. Maybe hang it in my room. It’s pretty cool.” The puppet gave an approving hiss before running back into the trunk to search for something else. While he did that, you took the chance to roll up the poster and set it aside for later, only to be surprised when the puppet dragged an old and _very_ worn journal from the trunk. You could only assume it was left by Toulon, seeing as this puppet was dead set on getting you to read it, and your suspicions were confirmed when you opened the cover to see his name scrawled inside. Of course, you weren’t going to read the entire thing right this moment, but it couldn’t hurt to quickly skim through the pages. It’s not like you really had a say in it either, what with the monochrome puppet on the ground eagerly awaiting your reaction.

 

        “Mkay, let’s find what you’re so adamant about me seeing.” You flipped through a few pages of text, none of which stood out to you, until you stumbled upon a very detailed sketch on one of the pages. “Woah.” You stared at the page, eyes roaming over the inner workings of what appeared to be the puppet with the tiny head. Notes were scribbled about in small script, but one particular thing stood out to you underneath the drawing. “So,” You started, pointing to the one in question. “His name is Pinhead?” A glance at the monochrome puppet showed an approving nod. That was enough for you to go back to skimming through the pages. “Okay... Then let’s see who the rest of these guys are.” Just as you had guessed, the journal was filled with more sketches of the puppets that stood in front of you. As you found them, you lifted a hand and pointed at each while saying it’s name, if only to help cement the names in your mind.

 

        “This one is...Tunneler.” That was the black-eyed puppet with the drill on his head. The name was pretty self explanatory, so you quickly moved on.

 

        “Six-Shooter.” Also self explanatory. The cowboy had six arms after all, each for shooting one of six guns holstered on his belt.

 

        “Jester.” It seems Toulon named his puppets rather simply, for this one was the jester-looking one with bells attacked to his hat. He looked kind of pretty, actually.

 

        “Torch.” This was the mean looking puppet with bullets for teeth. Upon closer inspection, you realized he only had one hand, a stump with an opening in it where the other hand would be. Judging by the name, you assumed that bit was for blowing fire like a flamethrower or something. Now you were glad he wasn’t the one currently moving around in your living room.

 

        “...Leech Woman.” Okay, you didn’t want to know why she was named that. The female puppet’s outer appearance was perfectly fine, even down to the nice dress she wore, but where leeches came from, you had no earthly idea. Hopefully you wouldn’t have to find out.

 

        “And...you!” The monochrome puppet looked up. “Your name is Blade, huh?” He nodded, using his hook to tip his hat in greeting. How cute. “Well, nice to meet you, little buddy. I’m ______. I guess I own you guys now?” That sentence felt weird on your tongue, but Blade gave another nod, so maybe it was alright. He didn’t seem to have any problem with the idea. “Okay, cool.” You adjusted your position on the couch to be more comfortable, eyeing the rest of the puppets at the same time. “So, if this Toulon guy brought _you_ to life, I’m willing to bet he managed to bring everyone else to life too. Any idea how he did it?” You weren’t stupid. It didn’t make sense to animate just one puppet when there were several more, and judging by the way Blade insisted you buy the rest of them with him, they had to have been alive at some point.

 

        In response to your question, Blade nodded again and ran back to the truck to dig something else out of it. He came out seconds later, this time dragging a small rectangular case that was also hidden away. Once he was close enough, you reached down to grab it, snapping open the little case and looking on in surprise. Nestled in the case were two bottles of a strange, green liquid, a needle, and a syringe. “What the hell..?” You gave Blade a confused look, but he simply motioned towards the journal in your lap. Damn it, you must’ve missed something. Here’s hoping Toulon didn’t turn out to be a drug junkie because there was no way you were putting that needle anywhere _near_ your arm.

 

        More page-flipping was involved, but you eventually found a section that described the process for reanimating the puppets. Apparently that green stuff was a special formula designed to bring them to life, and you would have to inject it into each puppet on a certain spot. Since they  _far_  outnumbered you, you decided it would be wise not to reanimate them all at once. Maybe a couple of them would do, just so Blade could have some friends for the time being. Of course, you would later reanimate the rest of them if you felt you could handle it, but for right now, just a few would be running around. “Alright little guy, let’s get you some company.” You tried not to feel queasy as you picked up the needle, putting it together with the syringe and popping open one of the bottles. Once the syringe was about halfway full, you looked over the puppets and quickly decided which ones you would bring to life. First would be Jester since he looked like a pretty fun guy, and second would be Pinhead. No offense to Leech Woman, but you just found his name more endearing than hers, especially since all these puppets had pretty obvious titles. With a name like Pinhead, how bad could that guy be?

 

        Once again, you referenced Toulon’s journal as you picked up Jester in one hand, plunging the needle into his chest and cringing mildly at the action. You hoped it didn’t hurt. The thought passed quickly once you gave him half of the formula, setting him down and picking up Pinhead to give him the rest. It was a pretty quick process, resulting in you swiftly putting the needle away in it’s case so you wouldn’t have to look at it anymore. After that, you got comfy on the couch again and put your elbows on your knees, resting your chin in your hands as you stared at the two puppets. Now that they had that weird formula, all that was left to do was wait.

 

        And wait.

 

 

 

        And wait...

 

 

 

 

        A n d w a i t . . .

 

        “...This takes some time, doesn’t it, Blade?” The pale puppet nodded again, giving you a pitying shrug afterwards. That prompted an annoyed sigh from you. Great. “Well, _you_ can wait here since they’re your family or whatever. _My_ impatient ass is gonna go do something else.” With that, you stood from your seat and walked out of the room, ignoring the appalled hiss Blade gave you as you left. What the hell? Where were you going?

 

        The puppet was about to try and get your attention again, not wanting to wait alone, when a noise from the coffee table caught his attention. He turned his gaze in the other direction, only to see-

 

 

 

        Oh, hello.

**Author's Note:**

> There’s not enough love for these puppets on this site. There’s not enough love for them PERIOD. I’d like to fix that.
> 
> Once the ball gets rolling, this will essentially become a fic full of little scenarios that I can envision happening with the reader and the puppets. Requests are open, but please bear in mind that this is mainly a self-indulgent fic that may not get very much attention for long periods of time.
> 
> That being said, please enjoy this first chapter I have. Thank you.


End file.
